HOBOKEN--According to the United Nations, Hoboken is a role model when it comes to its plans for flood protection.

As part of a resiliency campaign, the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNIDR) named Hoboken a role model city--a designation that has only been granted to one other U.S. city, San Francisco, said Maria Hasan, a representative with the UNIDR's New York City office. Hoboken joined the "Making Cities Resilient" in April 2013, Hasan said, and was nominated as a role model city by two outside parties. It joins 44 other role model cities worldwide.

"We are honored to be recognized for our efforts to make Hoboken more resilient," Mayor Dawn Zimmer said in a statement. "Through a multi-layered approach to resiliency, we are on the cusp of solving a more than century-old flooding problem."

The campaign launched in May 2010 to help cities prepare for natural disaster. It offers up 10 essentials for cities to reduce risk, including creating natural buffers to mitigate flooding and investing in infrastructure that can help drain stormwater.

In June, a plan to protect Hoboken, Weehawken and parts of Jersey City from flooding won $230 million as part of the federally funded Rebuild by Design contest. The grant will help fund the "resist" phase of the "Resist, Delay, Store, Discharge" plan, including infrastructure and soft landscape to guard against storm surges.

The announcement comes as the mayor seeks funding for two park projects that include underground chambers to retain large quantities of stormwater. The city council on Wednesday will consider applying for an $11.99 million loan from the New jersey Environmental Infrastructure Trust to purchase and convert six acres in northwest Hoboken, according to a memo sent by Zimmer on Monday. BASF currently owns the property--appraised at $9.7 million--and the city estimates construction design to cost $2.29 million.

The city is considering two designs for the park--one that can store one million gallons of water and another that can store five million. The latter option would cost $26 million, so the city would need to seek additional funding and a commitment from the North Hudson Sewerage Authority, Zimmer said.

The council will also consider a loan to fund the Southwest Park, a one-acre plot bounded by Observer Highway, Harrison Street and Paterson Avenue. The estimated cost of constructing the project, which would include a detention chamber to store 250,000 gallons of stormwater, is not to exceed $4.7 million.

Last week, the city approved an $11.7 million loan to fund a second wet weather pump station between Maxwell Lane and Sinatra Drive. The project is meant to prevent storm water from overflowing the sewer lines and flooding back into the city's lowest-lying streets.